MONTREAL – Sam Jenkins tallied a season-high 24 points but it was insufficient as McGill came up on the wrong end of an 87-76 loss to the visiting UQAM Citadins, Thursday. The result put a damper on the men's basketball home opener before 334 at Love Competition Hall.
 
UQAM led by as much as 21 points and easily won the first half 46-27 but McGill rallied after the intermission, to win the second half 49-41. The Redbirds pecked away at the UQAM lead down the stretch, narrowing the deficit to 71-67 with 4:21 remaining but every time they closed the gap, UQAM counter-punched to the mid-section with a key basket.
 
The upstart Citadins deployed a spread-out offensive onslaught that featured five players reaching double digits in scoring, led by 20 from Kevin Civil. He was aided and abetted by Bahaide Haidara (11), Samuel Cayo (11), Nicholas Bruyere (11) and Karl-Thomas Laforest (10). Teammate Jonathan Noel-Jeune added nine.
 
Jenkins shot 8-for-17 from the floor, including 4-for-9 from the three-point arc. He was a perfect 4-for-4 from the line and added five rebounds and six assists in 38 minutes of court time.
 
McGillians joining Jenkins in double figures were Haris Elezovic (17 pts, 8 rbs) and Zachary Lavoie-Toure (10). Sean Herscovitch and Samuel Chaput added nine and eight, respectively.
 
UQAM had a 32-26 edge in rebounding and a 14-8 margin in steals. Although the Citadins committed one more turnover (21-20), they outscored McGill 23-14 in points off turnovers.
 
In the end, the difference came down to UQAM being more efficient with their shooting. The Citadins shot a lofty 52.5 per cent from the field (31/59), with a 10-for-24 result from beyond the arc. They connected on an impressive 15-of-19 attempts from the line.
 
The Redbirds replied with a 41.9 per cent success rate from the floor (26/62), connected on 10-for-23 from downtown and made 14 of 22 freebies.
 
UQAM (1-2) returns to action on Nov. 19 when they host Bishop's (2-1), while McGill (0-4) has a bye and will return on Nov. 26 when Laval (2-1) will be the visitors. Both contests are scheduled for a 4 p.m. tip-off.
 
BOXSCORE
 
RSEQ STANDINGS
 

SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
@EarlZukerman (twitter)